Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.

Abstract

The 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster remains the largest single accidental release of oil and gas into the ocean. During the 87-day release, scientists used oceanographic tools to collect wellhead oil and gas samples, interrogate microbial community shifts and activities, and track the chemical composition of dissolved oil in the ocean’s interior. In the decade since the disaster, field and laboratory investigations studied the physics and chemistry of irrupted oil and gas at high pressure and low temperature, the role of chemical dispersants in oil composition and microbial hydrocarbon degradation, and the impact of combined oil, gas and dispersants on the flora and fauna of coastal and deep-sea environments. The multi-faceted, multidisciplinary scientific response to the released oil, gas and dispersants culminated in a better understanding of the environmental factors that influence the short-term and long-term fate and transport of oil in marine settings. In this Review, we summarize the unique aspects of the Deepwater Horizon release and highlight the advances in oil chemistry and microbiology that resulted from novel applications of emerging technologies. We end with an outlook on the applicability of these findings to possible oil releases in future deep-sea drilling locations and newly-opened high-latitude shipping lanes.

Key points

The Deepwater Horizon (DWH) disaster was the largest single accidental release of oil and gas to the ocean. Over 87 days, oil, gas and dispersants impacted 11,000 km2 of ocean surface and 2,000 km of coastline.

The application of subsurface dispersants was unique to the DWH disaster. Empirical observations, laboratory data and modelling efforts offer conflicting conclusions as to whether dispersants reduced the sea surface expression of released oil.

The DWH disaster was the first wide-scale environmental application of emerging systems biology tools based on microbial gene analysis. These tools provided unprecedented insights into the identity, structure, growth dynamics, succession and overall response of microbial communities to oil, gas and dispersant release to marine ecosystems.

The Gulf of Mexico coastline and deep ocean were contaminated with oil, gas and dispersants to differing degrees. In many cases, coastal ecosystems recovered as predicted based on previous oil release studies, whereas, in others, the disaster combined with other stressors to deleterious effect. Examination of the disaster’s impacts on the deep sea, and its ongoing recovery, continue.

Insights from the first decade of DWH-related research underscore the need for integrated analytical platforms and data synthesis to understand the complexities of the environmental responses to oil, gas and dispersant release. The spill science community must be ready to work collaboratively across academia, industry and government during possible future oil releases in the deep sea and high latitudes.

Doyle, S. M. et al. Rapid formation of microbe-oil aggregates and changes in community composition in coastal surface water following expsure to oil and the dispersant Corexit. Front. Microbiol.9, 689 (2018).

Acknowledgements

The authors thank DWH-related funding for establishing collaborations and conversations that enabled this manuscript (the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative to E.B.K., R.P.R., C.M.R. and H.K.W.; a Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award to H.K.W.; an Early Career Research Fellowship and a Collaborators Grant from the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine Gulf Research Program to JCT; the National Science Foundation to E.B.K. (OCE-1045811), CMR (OCE-1634478 and OCE-1756242), and DLV (OCE-1756947 and OCE-1635562)). Work performed at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory ICR User Facility is supported by the National Science Foundation Division of Chemistry through Cooperative Agreement DMR-1644779, and the State of Florida. The authors thank their research groups and collaborators for spirited discussions and constructive comments on the paper, and Dr Christoph Aeppli for constructive discussions and assistance with conceptualization of figures.